More than 1,700 students at Commack Middle School and at Jonas E. Salk Middle School in Levittown baked hundreds of loaves of bread earlier this month for three local food pantries — Island Harvest in Mineola, the Interfaith Nutrition Network in Hempstead and Faith Mission in Ozone Park.
“This is a way for kids to help others while doing something fun with their families,” said Joyce Conneely, a family and consumer sciences teacher at Commack. “Everybody wins.”
As part of the project, each student received a small package — which included flour, yeast, the recipe and instructions — and baked two loaves of bread at home. One loaf, Conneely said, was brought back to school as a donation.
“These days, fewer people are baking at home, so the tradition isn’t being handed down,” said Frank Sand, chairman of Vermont-based King Arthur Flour, which coordinated the nationwide project. “We want to pass on this traditional life skill to the next generation.”